Things I’ve Learned As A Moviemaker

by John Boorman | Published February 3, 2007

Actors
They don't want freedom. They sometimes complain and say 'You are telling me exactly what I have to do!' but they love it. They love it when the part is laid out for them, and they don't have to make those kinds of decisions. You can't get an actor to do something that is beyond his range, so you have to be aware of the range of the actor and, if necessary, alter the part to suit the actor.

A Director's Responsibility To the Script
I think that as a director you have to at the very least shape the script; structure it. Otherwise you're not really doing you're job.

"Post-Modern" Editing
What we see today in cinema is a kind of a new brutalism, where the camera changes speed and jumps around and all that stuff. It's post-modern: "You're watching a film." This is what it's telling you. That doesn't particularly appeal to me.

Legends and Myths
All the great legends are Templates for human behavior. I would define a myth as a story that has survived.

On Two Great Innovators of Cinema
What Griffith devised really was a God's eye view: the camera could go anywhere, and change its position-a close-up of one character, then a jump to somebody else two miles away. It's this that gives film the quality of dream, because dreams move in the same sort of way; we jump from one place to another. There were two sides to David Lean: on the one side, he was kind of a rather stiff, disciplined Englishman. And then he had this kind of romantic side to him. I think being true to both sides of your nature is important.

SHARE THIS STORY

COMMENTS | POST A COMMENT

Latest from the blog:

“Give ‘Till It Hurts” at the Fourth Annual SAW Blood Drive

SAW fans may get to save a life or two with the Fourth Annual SAW “Give ‘Till It Hurts” blood drive. Benefiting the Red Cross, the blood drive is set to coincide with the Halloween premiere of SAW V, the latest entry in the gruesome Lionsgate Films horror franchise, opening nationwide on October 26.

Posted 09.3.08 | Happenings | News/Commentary | No comments yet...